Ryanair is to base an additional three aircraft at Manchester Airport for its peak summer 2018 schedule (June-September), adding an extra 300,000 seats.
The low-cost carrier will also launch ten new routes to Agadir, Almeria, Barcelona Reus, Belfast, Cagliari, Palermo, Ponta Delgada, Porto, Rhodes, and Venice Treviso, as well as adding extra capacity on existing services.
In total it will offer 57 routes from Manchester this year and have 12 aircraft based at the airport.
“We will deliver an exciting set of ten new Manchester summer routes, some of which are connecting with Manchester for the first time, and add an extra 300,000 summer seats to the schedule,” said Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs.
“Over the past four years, Manchester has been one of our fastest growing bases in the UK and this year summer numbers will grow again by a further 9 percent.”
Ryanair has increased its Manchester capacity significantly in recent years growing from 2.3 million in 2012 to 4.9 million in 2017, according to OAG Schedules. As a result, its capacity share at the airport has increased from 10 percent to 14.9 percent over the same periods.
The expansion of Ryanair comes as research by aviation consultancy ASM, a sister business of Routes, has unveiled that Manchester recorded the second largest increase in passengers of any UK airport in 2017.
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Source: routesonline.com
Top five UK airports by passenger increase in 2017 (preliminary Sabre figures):
| Airport | 2016 | 2017 | Change | % growth |
| London Gatwick (LGW) | 42,051,754 | 43,554,790 | 1,503,036 | 3.6% |
| Manchester(MAN) | 25,698,647 | 27,001,189 | 1,302,541 | 5.1% |
| London Stansted (STN) | 24,340,546 | 25,608,213 | 1,267,667 | 5.2% |
| London Luton (LTN) | 14,488,900 | 15,608,906 | 1,120,007 | 7.7% |
| Edinburgh (EDI) | 12,211,702 | 13,262,228 | 1,050,526 | 8.6% |
